Low smear CCD camera for high frame rates

A small, versatile CCD (charge coupled device) camera is described. Frame readout times from one second to milliseconds can be changed continuously or at random by a programmable clock. A very large range of light intensity is thus covered without the need for mechanical aperture control. The camera can be reset at any time and then restarted at a different frame rate after the pause of a selected duration. The ICX016AL sensor was found especially suitable for clock rates up to 50 MHz. Image smear, blooming an dnoise are substantially lower than in earlier interline-transfer CCD sensors. Critical circuits are described and measured data are presented